AbbVie and Genmab, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in antibody therapeutics for treating cancer, have signed a broad collaboration agreement, worth up to $3.9 billion ($750 million up front with the potential to earn $3.15 billion in milestone payments), to jointly develop and commercialize three of Genmab’s early-stage investigational bispecific antibody product candidates and for a discovery research collaboration for future differentiated antibody therapeutics for cancer.

The discovery research collaboration will combine proprietary antibodies from both companies along with Genmab’s DuoBody technology and AbbVie’s payload and antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology to select and develop up to four additional differentiated antibody-based product candidates potentially across both solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Genmab’s DuoBody-CD3 technology engages and directs cytotoxic T cells selectively to tumors to elicit an immune response toward malignant tumor cells.

This collaboration will provide for the joint development and commercialization of three bispecific antibody therapeutic candidates, epcoritamab (DuoBody-CD3xCD20), DuoHexaBody-CD37 and DuoBody-CD3x5T4, For epcoritamab, the companies will share commercial responsibilities in the US and Japan, with AbbVie responsible for further global commercialization. Genmab will book net sales in the US and Japan and receive tiered royalties on remaining global sales. For DuoHexaBody-CD37, DuoBody-CD3x5T4 and any product candidates developed as a result of the companies’ discovery research collaboration, Genmab and AbbVie will share responsibilities for global development and commercialization in the US and Japan. Genmab retains the right to co-commercialize these products, along with AbbVie, outside of the US and Japan. For the discovery research partnership, Genmab will conduct Phase I studies for these programs. AbbVie retains the right to opt-in to program development.

Under the agreement, AbbVie will pay Genmab $750 million in upfront payment with the potential for Genmab to receive up to $3.15 billion in additional development, regulatory and sales milestone payments for all programs as well as tiered royalties between 22% and 26% on net sales for epcoritamab outside the US and Japan. Except for these royalty-bearing sales, the parties share in pre-tax profits from the sale of products on a 50:50 basis. Included in these potential milestones are up to $1.15 billion in payments related to clinical development and commercial success across the three existing bispecific antibody programs. In addition, if all four next-generation antibody product candidates developed as a result of the discovery research collaboration are successful, Genmab is eligible to receive up to $2.0 billion in option exercise and success-based milestone payments.

Source: AbbVie and Genmab